


One Night, Over Teacups

by StellarLibraryLady



Series: Stellar Flash Fiction [18]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Angst and Humor, Diplomatic Spock, Explicit Language, Friendship, Lonely Spock, M/M, Middle-age, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Snarky McCoy, Tea, Tea Drinking, Tired McCoy, Understanding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 06:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11285883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StellarLibraryLady/pseuds/StellarLibraryLady
Summary: McCoy and Spock form a friendship when they least expect to understand each other.





	One Night, Over Teacups

“Late night, Doctor?” 

“Oh, Spock. I didn‘t know that anyone else was here.” McCoy rolled his neck on his shoulders while he waited for his tea to brew. 

“I was working late myself and felt a desire for some company, so I came to the day room.”

“You? Company?” McCoy asked as he picked up his cup of tea. “Mind if I join you at your table, seeing as you‘re in such dire need for company?”

“It would be my pleasure, Doctor. And, yes, sometimes I do seek the company of others.”

“Well, isn’t it your lucky day then that I just happened to wander in looking for diversion and refreshment myself?” McCoy sipped at the contents of his cup. “Tastes like the inside of a skunk’s footlocker. But at least it’s hot.”

“Is that not what you required of the replicator?”

“Well, sure. Something hot.” McCoy was too tired to sleep and some trivial sparring with Spock might just be what the doctor needed to unwind.

“Then why are you surprised by receiving what you ordered?”

“Fair question. I was just making conversation, how about that for an answer? Informative enough for you?”

“Doctor, why do you feel that your answer must always be hostile?”

“Now, here I thought that I was giving you snappy answers. To amuse you, Spock. Why do you suppose my answers are hostile?”

“I believe that it could be for any number of reasons.”

“Oh?” McCoy’s smile was bitter and had no humor in it. “Why not enlighten me with just one reason then.”

“You feel ill-at-ease and off-balance with me, therefore you resort to bluster.”

“And you resort to pissy-assed comebacks like that,” McCoy muttered.

Spock raised an eyebrow.

“You poor bastard! You’re lonely as hell if you wanna visit with someone you disrespect so much.”

“I do not disrespect you.”

“Ha!”

“I simply do not understand you.”

“Touche!”

“You do not relate to me?”

“How can I?! You act like a cold fish! I like someone who responds to me! I need a little one-on-one! Is that so much to ask?!”

“You get offended easily. Then you get defensive which brings out your hostility.”

“I do not get defensive!”

“Then what are you doing now?”

“Defining terms!”

“And?”

“You’re having trouble understanding my definitions!”

“I am willing to learn, Doctor.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure! If Jim Kirk can’t make us understand each other, how are we going to get it figured out, tonight, over some tea that neither one of us really wants, when we’re half asleep? Me, from working two shifts and operating on more people than I should have. You, from contemplating your navel, or a tree log, or the inside of your own eyeballs, for all I know! The world inside must be more fascinating than people! No wonder you spend so much time contemplating what the rest of the universe just accepts!”

“Maybe I was wondering how long I will continue to perform at peak efficiency to justify my current position aboard this Starship.”

McCoy recognized truth when he heard it. “Is that what’s been eating at you, Spock?” he muttered in a low voice. “That bothers everyone. It‘s only late at night that we get worried about it. We‘re too damn busy at any other time of the day,” he grumbled.

“It is only one thing that bothers me. I see many things through many eyes.”

“You gotta stop that damn meditating!”

“Why?”

“It’s making you think too much! I understood that meditating was supposed to bring you peace, not stir you up.”

“I cannot help thinking of the future.”

“That’s normal! That bothers all of us, too. It’s just the fear of the unknown and of change. Don’t worry about it! You’re just going into middle-age and not wanting change!”

“You did not want change, either?”

“Watch it, there! I know I’m older than you, but I’m not middle-aged yet! Not by a long shot! Why, I’m just getting started! I got a lot of things I‘m gonna do before I‘m finished! And I gotta lot of steam in me to do them, too!”

The flicker of a smile danced across Spock’s lips. “I understand that denial can also be a big problem for men facing middle-age.”

“Watch it, there! But, yeah, you’re right. There’s a whole madhouse of catchwords: denial, toupees, male enhancement drugs, girdles, the whole sorry mess resorted to by men of a certain age! When you’re knocking on that aging door, all of those products start looking good and making sense.”

“I thought that expression dealt with ladies of a certain age.”

“The women can’t have everything,” McCoy grumbled. “They’re the ones who started it. We have to keep up with them.”

“How do they keep up?”

“By doing things that they accuse us men of doing. But, mainly, it’s starting to act like a kid again.”

“Young at heart?”

“I wish. Oh, I wish it was just that! No, it’s much worse. It’s dubbed ‘our second childhood’ by people who will resort to the same things themselves in a few years.”

“During the twilight years?”

“Well, I don’t know if we’ll be ready for the grim reaper yet.”

“How can we be young at heart, Doctor?”

“Oh, we could start acting like we were in our second childhoods. Taking up skiing. Or bull riding. Or sumo wrestling.”

“Would not those activities be strenuous and even dangerous?”

“Yeah. That’s why most people don’t do them even in their first childhoods. But when we hit our second childhoods, we have to prove something. All it generally proves is that we don‘t have any sense anymore.” He stood. “I’m ready to sleep now.”

“See you tomorrow then?”

“It’s a date! Well, not a date. Well, you know.”

“Perhaps I should walk with you. You are beginning to weave.”

“You’re escorting me?!”

“We will escort each other.”

“That’s better! Well, if you‘re going with me, haul ass! Don‘t dawdle!”

Spock jumped to his feet. “Coming, Doctor.”

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing of Star Trek, its characters, and/or its story lines.


End file.
